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I'm Nick Craig. Good morning to you.
Well, today appears to finally be the day in the North Carolina General Assembly as coming up a little bit later on this morning. Lawmakers from the North Carolina House and Senate are set to unveil a brand new state budget. This comes today, the final day of the fiscal year across the state of North Carolina, not only for the state itself, but for county and municipal governments. Their fiscal years run July 1st through June the 30th, marking the end of the 2025-2026 fiscal year today and the 26-27 fiscal year kicking off as we hit midnight. And flip the calendar over to July the 1st.
State lawmakers over the last couple of weeks have been hard at work getting the finalized details on the budget. There was some rumor yesterday, and it was on track to be released yesterday afternoon and yesterday evening. That did not happen. And according to multiple sources over at CarolinaJournal.com, that is set to have been delayed and is set to be released a little bit later on this morning. Drafts of the budget, which a lot of the top-line details and information had already been finalized over the final couple of weeks, show that the framework that the lawmakers announced back in May that they had agreed to will remain in place.
That will include some high-ticket items, including raises for all employees across the state of North Carolina, some different raises for specific kinds of state employees, looking at things like teachers, law enforcement officers as well.
However, what is interesting is that the spending plan is reportedly not going to include some big-ticket items, including some discussions over more than half a billion dollars set to be doled out or could have been doled out to laying out the plans and enticing Major League Baseball to come forward with an expansion team here in North Carolina. That has been the hot topic of political conversation. Over the last couple of weeks, as the MLB commissioner has announced that by the end of his term, which is in early 2029, he does look to expand Major League Baseball by two additional teams. North Carolina, the ninth largest state in the nation and the largest state without a Major League Baseball franchise.
However, disagreements between House and Senate leadership have caused that proposal to not be included in the budget. Doesn't mean that it can't come back through other pieces of legislation through the remainder of the year if lawmakers do decide to come back to Raleigh in the months to come, but it will not be included in this top-line state budget.
So here are some of the highlights again that we are expecting. Final details coming out a little bit later on today. About a 3% raise for most state workers across the state of North Carolina. State employees that are in prison or law enforcement would get raises. Ranging from 10 to a little over 17%.
That will depend on the position they are in and some other details. Those numbers will be finally hammered out this morning. Teachers, that's been a large topic of conversation as well. Would be looking at average raises of about 8% in this state budget, with veteran teachers receiving less and early career teachers getting more to entice more younger individuals going through the process to join the state of North Carolina and become a public educator. The deal also will include a $1,000 bonus for those making more than $65,000 a year, excuse me, and a $1,700 bonus for those making under $65,000 a year.
One of the major holdouts and one of the reasons that we went the entire length of the 2025 legislative long session without a budget, really in large Part revolved around how to deal with proper individual taxes moving forward. According to details, House Leader Destin Hall and Senate Leader Phil Berger have agreed to lower the income tax rate from 3.99% to 3.49%. With that, something that we have discussed in pretty great detail over the last couple of weeks, a constitutional amendment that voters will be asked to decide coming up later on this year would ban future lawmakers and future legislators from ever raising taxes above that 3.99% limit. That is, again, what we believe was the major holdup last year. When the June 30th rolled into July 1st of 2025, and North Carolina was without a budget, lawmakers seem to have come together on that.
Some other high-ticket items: the legislature allegedly has agreed to put an additional $100 million towards a brand new children's hospital, which is set to be built in a suburb of Wake County, built in the Apex area, which would put the state's total commitment at just north of $425 million as it stands right now to provide and officially add to North Carolina a standalone children's hospital, which the state does not have right now. With a lot of this spending, the question is going to be: well, how are you going to pay for it? One of the ways that that is slated to take place is that the budget is set to increase the rate at which the state of North Carolina taxes sports gambling operators. As it stands right now, the state collects $18. Of what is called gross wagering revenue from the regulated operators here in North Carolina.
And it has collected more than $287 million since March of 2024, a little more than two years now since legalized electronic sports betting started in the state of North Carolina. That percentage is set to tick up a little bit as lawmakers and these gaming operators will now be taxed at a rate of 23%, which could potentially mean tens of more millions of dollars each year from some of these operators across the state of North Carolina. This deal comes during what is currently scheduled to be the final week of the legislative short session, as outlined in a calendar released by House Speaker Destin Hall back just a couple of months ago. As lawmakers, over the last couple of weeks, and probably more accurately to say, just the last couple of days. Budget staff and legislative staff have been working essentially around the clock to get all of the details not only hammered out between the North Carolina House and Senate.
But get all of those details drafted and put into the fiscal budget, which will be hundreds of pages when it is finally released a little bit later on today. The framework that we have heard and did hear about back in the month of May, all of those major top-line numbers, as I mentioned, will are expected to stay the same. Not expecting any major surprises there as this budget deal follows months of negotiation over things like teacher pay, state employee raises, tax cuts, Medicaid spending, infrastructure, and other major state priorities. With North Carolina failing to pass a comprehensive budget during the 2025 long session, leaving much of the state government operating under the same spending levels that were approved more than a thousand days ago back in the 2023 legislative long session. This is going to set up what could be a very interesting couple of Days in Raleigh, as the major question will be: what is Democrat support on this budget, not only in the General Assembly, but in the governor's mansion?
If the budget is approved in both chambers, which it seemingly will, with Republicans having the majority in both the House and the Senate, that budget would then pretty quickly, potentially by the end of the week, move to Democrat Governor Josh Stein's desk, who has three different options. He can sign the bill into law, meaning he would approve the state budget, veto it, or allow it to become law without his signature after 10 days. If the governor does decide to veto the budget, that would force Republican legislative leaders to decide whether they have the votes for a veto override and force them back to Raleigh during this legislative short session after the July the 4th holiday. We are going to be keeping a very close eye on that. Multiple members of our Carolina journal team will be down at the legislature.
Today, and we'll be keeping you up to date throughout the day. I very much encourage you to head on over to our website this morning, CarolinaJournal.com. Make sure you're checking that throughout the day as quickly as we are learning details from the budget, analyzing all of the information that is in there. We will be updating that over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com. If that doesn't work for your schedule, well, we'll be on top of it and have a full analysis, full breakdown coming up for you tomorrow morning right here on the Carolina Journal News Hour.
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It's 521. Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, Charlotte's FM News Talk, 107.9 FM. WBT, we are tracking some pretty significant news out of the federal government this morning as two months after the Trump administration canceled two large offshore wind energy leases, the United States Department of the Interior, that's DOI, has announced a settlement with Duke Energy. The agreement, which was announced on Monday by Interior Secretary Doug Bergham, it allows Duke Energy, the state's largest electrical producer and provider, to voluntarily terminate its federal offshore wind lease for its scheduled Carolina Long Bay project. That project was planned around 22 nautical miles south of Baldhead Island.
That's in Brunswick County in southeastern North Carolina, and was expected to generate enough electricity to power more than 300,000 homes. Federal officials say that the agreement allows Duke to redirect nearly $129 million previously tied to offshore wind projects towards investments in additional generating capacity as well as grid improvements. According to the Department of the Interior, those investments could include new natural gas generation, advanced nuclear technologies, and other infrastructure designs to improve grid reliability while helping keep customer costs as low as possible. And we know that the customer cost angle of this has been a major topic of conversation over the last couple of months with a lot of chatter on social media and a lot of pushes. Even in local areas across North Carolina, to deal with some of these very high electrical bills.
The Secretary and Doug Bergham said in a statement with the announcement on Monday: President Trump's vision of unleashing affordable, reliable American energy for our country's communities and using common sense to put the American people first is being implemented. Duke Energy will now be able to convert a national security concern into projects that will lower the costs for its consumers in North Carolina and surrounding states. The agreement is a win-win scenario that has become a hallmark for how the Trump administration operates. Duke's position on offshore wind has shifted significantly over the past year. In filings late last summer with the North Carolina Utilities Commission, the company concluded that offshore wind energy production is not currently the most reliable, cost-effective energy source, and the energy company would not be issuing any additional RFPs or requests for proposals to pursue those projects moving forward.
The utility cited rising project costs, lengthy development timelines, and rapidly growing electricity demand driven by population growth and new industrial development. The move comes as utilities across the Southeast and, in large part, the nation as a whole, face a record electricity demand from manufacture expansions, data centers, we know that's been discussed a lot as well over the last couple of months, and population growth, all three of those increasing the need for reliable and affordable. Affordable electrical generation. According to the Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Duke Energies Carolina, this settlement allows Duke Energy to refocus $129 million in ways that directly benefit our customers and communities in the Carolinas. Under this agreement, Duke Energy will reinvest nearly $129 million in additional generating capacity, which may include advancing new nuclear and natural gas generation and grid enhancements to strengthen reliability and support continued growth in the Carolinas and keep costs as low as possible.
And quote there from Duke Energy itself. Discussions over utility rates have been something that was a focus during the North Carolina's General Assembly short session here in 2026. Multiple pieces of legislation, including Senate Bill 730, the Rate Payer Protection Act, and House Bill 1192, the Energy and Affordable Housing Act, have advanced through the legislative process.
However, neither measure received a final approval from lawmakers. And there is, of course, the possibility that some verbiage from those two pieces of legislation, or maybe both of them standalone, do Find their way into the state budget. We'll likely find out about that coming up a little bit later on today. Brian Balfour, the senior vice president of research at the John Locke Foundation, said that this settlement is a significant victory for North Carolina ratepayers, arguing that it redirects investments away from costly offshore wind and towards more affordable and reliable sources of electricity. Valfour told the Carolina Journal.
This decision will translate into a win for North Carolina ratepayers. Offshore wind is an incredibly inefficient means of generating electricity, meaning it is much more expensive and far less reliable than baseload sources of energy like nuclear and natural gas. North Carolinians expect and deserve affordable electricity when they need it. Duke Energy intends to use those funds to instead invest in either nuclear, natural gas, or some combination of both, which is a beneficial trade-off and improvement for electricity customers. This agreement marks another step in the Trump administration's effort to move away from offshore wind and instead focus on expanding nuclear, natural gas, and other reliable sources of electrical generation.
This is something that we have talked about in pretty great detail here on the Carolina Journal News Hour over the last couple of years, as many states like North Carolina have been faced with making these decisions and figuring out how do we produce or how do the utility commissions in many of these states or some equivalent body figure out how to force lawmakers in force at electrical companies like Duke Energy and others into a position where they are generating electricity at a reliable And a semi-affordable rate for their consumers that, of course, include not only residential customers, but large and small businesses across states like North Carolina, where the discussion and remains huge amounts of population growth. North Carolina consistently, depending on the survey that you look at, is in the top two or top three states for the fastest growth in the nation. With all of those individuals moving to North Carolina, there's a lot more electricity demand, data centers and other heavy manufacturing facilities coming online pretty regularly across the state as well. Many of those large-scale customers using large amounts of electricity as well. That has put utilities like Duke in a very tough spot to manage.
And unfortunately, the way it's been managed is passing the buck on to the residential ratepayers who, in some cases, have seen their electricity bills double, if not triple. Just over the last couple of years, as we continue now through the hot heat of the summer, some very warm temperatures over the last couple of weeks. It will remain as we head into the July the 4th holiday. Everybody is looking for some level of relief. We will be keeping an eye on exactly how Duke Energy will allocate this $129 million that it is now moving away from offshore wind, the Carolina Long Bay offshore wind project off of the southeastern North Carolina coast, and how that is invested in the rest of their infrastructure.
You can read more on this story this morning by visiting our website, CarolinaJournal.com. Look for the headline, Duke to reinvest $129 million after canceling NC offshore wind lease. When I need a mood for something sweet and hot, do I wait hoping my husband walks in dressed in tight tennis shorts and a dozen roses? No, I hit Hardy's for the new made-from-scratch hot honey biscuit. That crispy chicken, that hot honey, and that sweet price.
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It's 537. Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, Charlotte's FM News Talk, 107.9 FM, WBTI Nick Craig. A good Tuesday morning to you. One of the legal challenges that we have been keeping a very close eye on here on the Carolina Journal News Hour over the last couple of years deals with a series of bar owners across the state of North Carolina that sued at the time, former Democrat governor Roy Cooper and the state of North Carolina for what they claimed was shutting down their businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic. Obviously, many of these actions taking place in 2020 and 2021.
Here we are about halfway through the year in 2026, and those lawsuits do continue throughout the judicial system here in North Carolina. To bring us up to date on the latest this morning, Mitch Kokai from the John Locke Foundation joins us on the Carolina Journal News Hour. Mitch, pretty spicy headline over at Carolina Journal, potential deposition for former Democrat governor Roy Cooper and some of his administration officials that were making some of these COVID decisions back in 2020 and 2021. Yes, this is a very interesting development in this case. It goes back to the early days of the COVID pandemic, a lawsuit filed in June of 2020 by a group of bar owners working with the North Carolina Bar and Tavern Association.
And they were complaining because executive orders from then Governor Roy Cooper kept private bars closed as other businesses, including restaurants and other establishments that have bars, were able to reopen. And the private bar owners are saying, wait a minute, why do we have to stay closed while everyone else is reopening? You're stopping us from earning a living. This is our business. This is the only way that we bring in money and put food on the table.
And so they filed suit in June of 2020.
Now, the suit was initially dismissed because the argument was made, well, you know, these shutdowns were tied to the governor's attempt to protect public health and public welfare. But by the time the case got to the North Carolina Supreme Court, that court decided in a split decision, five to two, the five Republican justices in the majority, the two Democratic justices in the minority. The majority decided that, look, there is an actionable claim here on shutting down these businesses and having that violate the state constitutional right to the fruits of your own labor. You have economic rights to be able to earn a living. And so there is a reasonable expectation of that.
And so now the case will go back to a trial court level to decide whether there is any liability here. And if it's determined that there is liability, then these bars could potentially collect damages from the state.
So the latest development is that the bar owners, lawyers, filed a motion to compel Testimony and basically capell depositions from Cooper and from his former Department of Health and Human Services Secretary, Mandy Cohen, who some people may remember if they don't remember her being the three steps lady from the COVID days, because she was the one who was always on TV talking about keeping distance from people and covering up and all the other things about COVID. If they don't remember her from that, later she was the head of the CDC under Joe Biden.
So both well-known figures. And the bar owners want to get depositions from them. But in some court filings, we learned that lawyers who represent Governor Josh Stein, who is now the official defendant because he took over from Cooper, he's the official defendant, but also representing Cooper and Cohen, they're trying to put off these depositions and not have them take place.
So a motion has been filed to compel. The depositions from Cooper and Cohen. A hearing is scheduled in early July to deal with this issue, but the Cooper, Cohen, Stein lawyers don't want to have that issue addressed at that hearing. And the latest filings that we saw from the bar owners' lawyers are saying: look, there's no reason to delay any of this. The only reason to delay this is to shield the former governor from providing sworn testimony under oath.
Because he's running for a higher office. He's running now for Senate. And so it'll be very interesting to see where things go from here. Mitch, you've done a really good job over. We've talked about this story a couple of times recently.
We've had a couple of little updates here and there. And so we've got a good grasp on the legal background of this. It now seems like with this question about the deposition, most specifically for former Democrat governor Roy Cooper, who, of course, is now running to be the next U.S. Senator from the state of North Carolina, something that has been buried within the judicial system, gets updates every once in a while, could potentially turn into a pretty hot political issue here across the state of North Carolina if the courts compel the governor to come in and talk about COVID-19, which, in retrospect, I think a lot of individuals look at and say, what were we doing? Only walk one way in the grocery store aisles, the three steps, as you noted, a bunch of very wacky things going on in 2020.
I would imagine that Cooper and his campaign team would not want some of that stuff to boil back to the surface with a major U.S. Senate race just months away. Yeah, my guess is that Roy Cooper and his team would like people to remember as little as possible about what was going on in North Carolina from the government during the days of the biggest lockdowns from COVID-19, because people, if they do think back to that, are probably not going to think about it fondly. And one of the other things that came out in the filings in this case was just a reminder of what happened. with Roy Cooper and how private bars, who were the plaintiffs in this lawsuit, how they were treated differently.
I had kind of forgotten the fact that the order shutting down the bars and saying they couldn't operate came down on St. Patrick's Day. And one of the things that's in the court filing is this is one of, if not the busiest, days for a bar. Throughout the entire year, and the bar owners learned on that day they were going to have to shut down. And then, within a matter of days or at most weeks, other businesses were allowed to reopen while these private bars had to remain closed.
And for well over a year, there were restrictions on these bars. Either they couldn't reopen, or if they could reopen, it was on a very limited basis. And so, the argument is being made in this suit that this was done in a way that did not really have to deal with public health and safety. It was just a decision that was made by the governor and by his team, led by Mandy Cohen, who at that time was the Department of Health and Human Services Secretary, that didn't really have a great grounding in fact. One of the things that comes out of the court filing was that when asked why this is happening, the governor said he was relying on data and science and on briefings from public health experts.
And so the bar owners were saying, okay, well, show us. I mean, show us the science, show us the data, give us information about these briefings that you're having so we can at least know whether this is legitimate or not. And the governor's team did not respond. And so I think. That is The reason to get the depositions is: okay, well, you know, you told us at the time that you were relying on data and science and briefings.
What can you tell us about that? Where is the data? Where's the science? What is the information from the briefings? And the team that's representing Cooper and Cohen and Stein, who, as I said, is the official defendant in this case, have basically said, no, this is not something that needs to happen.
You don't need to be holding a deposition with Cooper and Cohen. You could get the information you need in other ways. And the bar owners are saying, no, this is this. It cuts to the very heart of this case. The case is that you shut us down and didn't have a legitimate reason to do it.
And so there is liability. And then once that's proven, then we can go back and see what sort of damages that need to be repaid from the state because of this. And basically, they're saying in their court filings that the only reason that this is not happening is that the lawyers are trying to shield Governor Cooper and Mandy Cohen from taking part in this. And on Cooper's behalf, it's because he's running for Senate and doesn't want to have to deal with this in a way that could hurt his Senate campaign. No surprise there at all.
You look at some of the illogical stuff and really how this case breaks down to this point, Mitch. If you had a bar inside of a restaurant, obviously, that served food, you were able to open. Seemingly, the risk of getting COVID-19 drinking at that bar was very limited or non-existent. But you went to many of these other facilities and establishments across North Carolina that were standalone bars, did not have any sort of dining or food options. Those were the facilities, many of them in this lawsuit and part of the North Carolina Bar and Tavern Association that saw their literal competition just a couple of doors down be able to be open for months, if not years on end, while they had their doors essentially padlocked, just to the basic human eye.
That doesn't pass any sort of health safety standard test in any way, shape, or form. That's right. And you mentioned the bars that were in restaurants. You also had the difference between these private bars, who were the plaintiffs in the suit, and country clubs, which were allowed to open with their bars. And also, Breweries and other types of businesses that have been seen as part of economic development, they were allowed to open, but just a kind of a standalone private bar that wasn't seen as part of North Carolina's local economic development scheme.
They were forced to remain closed. And their argument throughout the lawsuit has been that it's been a double standard, that there was no reason for health and safety and protecting people from COVID-19 to keep their bars closed while allowing all of these other bars to reopen. In fact, one of the things that is in the court filings is that there are eight different types of bars that are licensed, and seven of the eight were allowed to reopen within weeks of the initial shutdown. And the only type that was forced to remain closed are the private bars that are the plaintiffs in this lawsuit. And their argument has been there was no real justification from a health and safety.
Safety perspective to keep them closed while allowing all of the other types of bars to reopen. And that's one of the things that they're trying to get at in this lawsuit. And their argument is they need the depositions from former Governor Cooper and from Mandy Cohen to help make this case. Mitch, we do have a court date coming up next week. There obviously will not be any depositions at that date itself, but w would you expect and I'm not asking you necessarily to give us 100% guarantee, but would you expect as we approach that court date next week that we'll get some better idea from the court whether something like this will or will not move forward?
Well, the hearing could determine whether it will move forward at this point or not. There are a couple of things that are scheduled potentially to be part of this hearing. One is whether the North Carolina Bar and Tavern Association itself will be dropped from the case. The governor's lawyers have argued that the Bar and Tavern Association cannot collect any damages because it is not a bar that shut down. The bars that were part of this case could potentially get damages, but the Bar and Tavern Association itself could not.
And so they want to drop that group from the suit. That's one thing that this hearing is supposed to address. And then the other piece that could be addressed would be whether to compel depositions from Roy Cooper and Mandy Cohen. The plaintiffs would like to see the issue addressed at that hearing. The defendants don't want to see it addressed at that hearing.
They want it to be delayed to give them more time to come up with a response. But as I said in the latest court filing, the bar owners, lawyers are saying, look, there's no reason to delay it. They've known about this for years and years. And the only reason they're saying, the bar owners, that you would delay is to shield the former governor and his former Health and Human Services Secretary from having to give depositions at a time when Roy Cooper is running for Senate. The story, regardless of whether there are depositions or not, does remain something that is very interesting, and we'll continue to track it across the state of North Carolina.
You can read some additional quotes from the most recent court filings, those details over on our website this morning, CarolinaJournal.com. We appreciate the update. Mitch Kogai from the John Locke Foundation joins us on the Carolina Journal News Hour. Ah. Good morning again.
It's 5:56. Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, Charlotte's FM News Talk 107.9 FM, WBT recapping our big story this morning. State lawmakers in the next couple of hours are set to unveil the fiscal year 26-27 budget. After months of negotiations and more than a thousand days since the last time the state of North Carolina has proposed and voted on a budget, according to our sources over at CarolinaJournal.com, lawmakers coming up here later on, or early, I should say, this morning, are set to unveil the what will likely be more than a couple of hundred page budget. And that will kick off what we are expecting to be a very busy Wednesday and Thursday as today, June 30th, marks the end of the fiscal year.
Lawmakers are expected to unveil that budget, vote on it over the next couple of days, and then all eyes will be on Democrat Governor Johnson. Josh Stein, where he will have three options, whether he signs the budget into law, vetoes the legislation, which could force another veto override from lawmakers, or allows it to become law automatically after 10 days. We'll be keeping you up to date all throughout the day over at CarolinaJournal.com. That's going to do it for a Tuesday edition. WBT News is next, followed by Good Morning BT.
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